Geneva Bible Donated to PA Church

It is amazing what can happen with anonymous donors. One recently gave a church in Pennsylvania a Bible from 1584.

The first Geneva Bible was printed in 1560 in Geneva, Switzerland. More than 140 editions were printed in the next 84 years.
"It went through multiple editions," said Richard Kuhta, librarian at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C.
Geneva Bibles came into being during the five-year reign of Mary Tudor, who was England's Queen from 1553 to 1558. She was succeeded by Elizabeth I.
A Catholic known as "Bloody Mary" for her persecution of Protestants, Mary Tudor was determined to roll back the Reformation and bring Roman Catholicism back to England.
A number of Protestant scholars fled to Geneva.
There, the scholars translated the Bible from Latin to English. Scholars who tried that in England were persecuted severely by Queen Mary. Burning at the stake was a common punishment of the day for such heretics.
"The 1550s were a very troubled time in England," Kuhta said. As a result, Geneva became the center for Biblical scholarship.
Queen Elizabeth restored Protestantism to England and the first Geneva Bible was printed in England in 1575. Geneva Bibles remained popular with the English people long after the introduction of the King James version.

The church has been displaying the Bible for a while, but had decided to auction off the gift or donate it to a local theological seminary. It is a piece of history, but better off being used to help out those in need.